Teaser: While little is known about Paul Primeau, glimpses of him are found in other records. Interestingly, Primeau’s story continues after his death, and there is considerable confusion regarding his final resting place.
Paul Primeau
Paul Primeau was mentioned little in the journals of Lewis and Clark. Aside from a list of engages, little is known of Primeau. Primeau served as an Arikara interpreter for the expedition. Originally from Chateauguay, Canada, Primeau married Pelagie Bissonet in St. Louis in 1799 (Brown-Trogdon). The captains discharged him from the expedition in the fall of 1804 with Gravelines, Lajeunesse and two others (Clark). However, glimpses of Primeau are found in other references.
Evidence suggests that the Northwest Company may have employedRoc Primeau prior to his work for Lewis and Clark (Johnson). During the expedition, Clark mentioned Primeau sparingly in his journal entries. Primeau appeared in Clark’s entry for November 6, 1804, returning on a pirogue with three others to the Arikaras (Clark). Aside from a few cursory mentions on a roster of engagés, hardly anything else is known about his involvement with the expedition.
There was evidence to suggest that multiple members of the Expedition, including the engagés, were involved in disputes with others or the law. Within the St. Louis Circuit Court archives there are records of Corps of Discovery members John Boley, John Collins, John Colter, George Drouillard, Etienne Malbouf, John Newman, Paul Primeau, Nathaniel Pryor, Isaac White, and Alexander Willard, who all remained in the St. Louis area after the expedition. Primeau’s record comes from 1810. As plaintiff, Primeau sought relief for a debt owed by Louis Lebeaume. Lebeaume apparently owed Primeau for ‘divers [sic] goods, wares, and merchandise’ but failed to pay him. The court ordered the sheriff then to summon Lebeaume (St. Louis Circuit Court Records). Since many transactions occurred through the use of promissory notes rather than currency, in Primeau v. Lebeaume, Lebeaume likely signed a promissory note which he probably could or would not later pay.
In a separate event, Primeau and his family appear again in court records. In 1820, Primeau’s brother-in-law Louis Bissonet and two others, as employees of Pratte and Vasquez, were wounded in an attack by Native Americans. Such occurrences were common at the time; similar to that of George Drouillard who also faced violence from Native Americans after relations soured due to continuing encroachment. Later, when Louis died in 1836, Paul Primeau was appointed as the administrator of Louis’ estate. The heirs to Louis Bissonet’s estate were his brother, his nephew and niece, and his sister Pelagie (Luttig).
When Primeau died in 1851 of old age, he was initially interred in the Rock Springs Cemetery, located in what is today the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, MO. The Rock Springs Cemetery was in use from about 1849 to 1866. Even though a few deceased were buried there afterward, the Catholic Church officially abandoned the cemetery in 1899, and the remains of many of the deceased were moved to Calvary Cemetery, north of downtown St. Louis, and a vault beneath St. Bridget of Erin Catholic Church in St. Louis, which subsequently closed. As recent as 2011, other remains have been found and moved from Rock Springs to Calvary (Campbell, Personal communication, 04 May 2022). However, other sources describe findings of human remains near the old Rock Springs cemetery as recently as 2014 (Currier). And many of the remains were moved unclaimed (Campbell). As far as Primeau is concerned, if his remains were not left behind in Rock Springs, he may have been moved to the vault beneath St. Bridget, and then moved to Calvary. Otherwise he may currently lay in section 5 of Calvary cemetery for a section designated ‘known only to God.’ There is a lesser likelihood his remains are in a plot set up by his son, Louis (Campbell, personal communication, 04 May 2022).
References
- Brown-Trogdon, Jo Ann. “The St. Charles Boatmen.” lewis-clark.org, https:// https://lewis-clark.org/members/st-charles-boatmen/
- Campbell, Mike. Email. 03 May 2022. RE: Webform submission from: Contact Us > Widgets > Section Items.
- Clark, William. “November 6, 1804 Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.” Lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu, https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1804-11-06#lc.jrn.1804-11-06.02
- Currier, Joel. June 6, 2014. “Tomb is found during excavation near St. Louis IKEA site.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/tomb-is-found-during-excavation-near-st-louis-ikea-site/article_399296f4-e0fd-50a7-81a0-d4e524e91163.html
- Johnson, Simone, A. The French Presence in Kansas, 1673-1854. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/21248/Dinneen_FrenchInKs_full.pdf.txt;jsessionid=FB441FCF34EC501CE5CDA3258D6D0108?sequence=3
- Luttig, John C. Journal of a Fur-trading Expedition on the Upper Missouri: 1812-1813. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1920.
- Rock Springs Cemetery in Saint Louis, Missouri – find a Grave. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/31190/rock-springs-cemetery.
- St. Louis Circuit Court Records. Paul Primeau v. Louis Labeaume. (2011). Retrieved May 3, 2022, from http://digital.wustl.edu/legalencodingproject/ccrweb/ccr1810.00088.008.html
